1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector for a flexible conductor which can cope with a flexible conductor, such as a flexible flat cable (hereinafter, referred merely to as an “FFC”) or a flexible printed circuit board (hereinafter, referred merely to as an “FPC”)
2. Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally known a connector adapted to obtain a required contact pressure between the external terminals on the FFC or FPC, bonded with a reinforcing plate on its backside, and the contacts on the connector through utilization of a slider, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-133351.
It is a recent tendency to eliminate a reinforcing plate from the FFC or FPC, along with decrease in the thickness thereof. This however makes the FFC or FPC easy to deform. The existing connector is structured to bring the FFC or FPC external terminals into contact with the contacts on the connector simultaneously with insertion of a slider. The FFC or FPC if deformed hinders the positive connection to the contacts.
Furthermore, the number of external terminals on the FFC or FPC increases to accommodate electrical devices having increasingly complicated circuits. For this reason, the external terminals tend to be arranged in front and rear positions. The contacts on the connector are also arranged in the front and rear positions. In the existing connector, when the slider moves a distance between the contacts arranged in the front and rear positions, time lag arises upon contacting of the FFC or FPC external terminal with the contact. This however might raise an unfavorable situation.
Meanwhile, due to the increased number of external terminals on the FFC or FPC, there is also a tendency of arranging a grounding external terminal on the backside thereof. With the slider of the existing connector, no connection is available between the grounding external terminal provided on the backside of the FFC or FPC and the grounding contact of the connector. This requires another mechanism, thus complicating the structure further.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a connector for a flexible conductor which can positively bring the FFC or FPC external terminals into contact with the contacts and to simultaneously put the external terminals arranged in the front and rear positions into contact with the contacts in the front and rear positions. Another object of the invention is to provide a connector for a flexible conductor which can bring the grounding contact, arranged at the backside of an FFC or FPC, into contact with the grounding contact of the connector through the use of a driver, such as a slider.